History of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Surendranath Dasgupta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Year: 1922
Total Pages: 2517
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 125 MB

Page 962

406 Speculations in the Medical Schools (ch. the desire for a blessed after-life. In this connection Caraka introduces a discussion to prove the existence of a future state of existence. He says that a wise man should not entertain doubts regarding the existence of a future life, since such doubts might hinder the performance of right conduct. The mere fact that we cannot experience its existence with our senses is not a sufficient negative proof. For there are few things which can be directly experienced by the senses, and there are many which exist, but are never experienced by the senses. The very senses with which we experience other things cannot themselves be subject to senseexperience. Even sensible things cannot be perceived if they are too near or too distant, if they are covered, if the senses are weak or diseased, if the mind is otherwise engaged, if they are mixed up with similar things, if their light is overcome by stronger light, or if they are too small2. It is therefore wrong to say that what is not perceived by the senses does not exist. If, again, it is argued that the foetus must derive its soul from the parents, then it may be pointed out that, if the soul of the foetus migrated from either of the parents, then, since the soul is without parts, it could not have migrated in parts, and such a total migration would mean that the parents would be left without any soul and would die. As the soul could not migrate from the parents to the child, so neither can the mind nor the intellect be said to have so migrated. Moreover, if all life must be derived from the migration of other souls, then how can insects come into being, as many do, without parent insects3? Consciousness exists as a separate and beginningless entity, and it is not created by anyone else. If, however, the supreme soul be regarded as its cause, then in that sense it may be conceived as having been produced therefrom. The theory of the after-life consists according to Caraka principally in the view that the soul is existent and uncreated, and that it is associated with the foetus at a certain stage of its development in the womb. He also refers to the evidence of rebirth which we
1 yair eva tāvad indriyaih pratyakşam upalabhyate tāny eva santi cāpratyakşāni. Caraka, 1. 11. 7.
2 satām ca rūpāņām ati-sannikarşād ati-viprakarşād āvaraņāt karana-daurbalyān mano 'navasthānāt samānābhihārāt abhibhavād ati-sauksmyāc ca pratyakşanupalabdhih. Ibid. 11. 8.
3 samsveda-jānām maśakādinām tathodbhij-jānām gandūpadādinām cetanānām mātā-pitarau na vidyete tatas teşām acaitanyam syān mātā-pitroś cetanakāranayorabhāvāt. Cakrapāņi on Caraka, II. II.
On this point Cakrapāņi gives a different interpretation in 1. 11. 13.